David Barton, darling of the religious right, frequent guest of Fox and former "historican" for Glen Beck, has come out with a book whitewashing Jefferson's ownership of African slaves. A review of it used some real historians' debunking of Barton, featured on a website I visited from a Crooks and Liars link.

I commented:

"You touch on a sublime irony. If he whitewashes Jefferson’s role as a slaver, the pseudo-historian Barton does the Bible a disservice. Both old and new testaments acknowledge the righteousness of owning slaves; indeed, much of the O.T. is chock full of advice on how to treat this conquered foe or that once you have them in chains. The Bartons of this world, hell-bent on painting the separation of church and state as 'a myth,' do all they can to Christianize the statesman, but he and Adams, Madison and Lincoln (and anyone’s guess how many others) often dissed Christianity at least in the practice of it, some reserving choice epithets for pastors and preachers in particular. (Lincoln’s atheism may have been inspired by all the failed table-turnings in the White House, since both he and Mary were so saddened with the death of Tad that they resorted to spiritism. Today, we have The Great Randi.) Make no mistake about it: Jefferson was anti-clerical, anti-organized religion, and basically agnostic if not privately atheist."

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That guy just has a face that asks to be punched, lol. I wonder what he'd look like with no front teeth? LoL. No wonder he's warping Jefferson's image to the far right. And that hair is asking for a swirly....

He might have been kinda cute at, say, 16. But he reminds me of one of the characters on The Waltons, I think his name was Jim Bob. In any case, he fits right in with that southern two-name syndrome. I had a schoolmate in grade school named Joe Don. Now that he is a successful man in the oil-related business, he's told everyone he just just plain Don. But his business card says "J. Don." Guess who he is voting for in the fall? (Well, I kind of gave it away in the mention of "oil.") I cringe when I pass his office in the a.m. and hear the voice of Rush Limbaugh. But Barton is much too teen looking. I bet he's homophobic on top of all else. Too many closeted gay men identify with the party that has, historically, persecuted gays. Think about that freak who groped a cop in an airport terlet. Talk about deeply closeted hypocrites! There is something about Barton's looks that makes me sick.

Barton is a fraud - pure and simple. Notwithstanding his claim to be an historian (yeah, and I'm an underwater astronaut), he refuses to have any of his published tripe peer reviewed by other historians. It gets even better, though. Two candidates for the Texas School Board called him out on his BS, and an author wrote an article in the Examiner entitled "Exposing David Barton." Did he publicly debate them, or write a counter argument explaining and documenting his position? F&^c No! He sued them!

That's right. He filed a lawsuit claiming they had defamed him because they disagreed with him. Don't engage in scholarly debate or intellectual discourse. Rather, act like Yosemite Sam with a summons. "I'm a goin' to the law, you consarned, bushwackin', horny toad, idget." Yeah, he's a real serious scholar!

As we know, truth is the best defense against a defamation suit. This one should be easy for the defense. So many books have been written now refuting Barton, and the defense expert in history would scoff at a degree in religion from an evangelical "university" (in quotes because the word implies diversity and open-mindedness; I ask you, ORAL ROBERTS?, the asshole who would actually weep on TV so that fools would send him checks for this project or that? I mean any better evidence for a confidence game of myth for money). And don't forget the evangelical who was sued for pocketing contributions in the form of "prayer letters": the plaintiff attorneys actually had proof he was putting the letters into the incinerator without having even read them. Photo is of our local megachurch wannabee, Bil [sic] Cornelius. These people should be imprisoned for confidence schemes. All of them. They're selling delusion,using superstition as the bait.